How does moral failure sound? Or is morality simply irrelevant to the rule of law? The more things change – better spin – the more they stay the same. Change we can believe in, indeed.

As Alexander Cockburn points out at Counter Point, Obama is not the exception, he is the rule. He is following the familiar pattern. Is the electoral process in the “greatest” Eighteenth Century democracy on earth, with its voting machine gizmos and management by television, merely superfluous?

ELSEWHERE:

E J Dionne in The Washington Post, via Truthdig, comments on the president’s long game, including the felt need to be hawkist with defence related issues, such as terrorism, with the LBJ analogy.

Even sweet, smiling Joe Biden does not cut the mustard with Chris Floyd.

David Michael Green, at Common Dreams, argues that Obama’s skill at framing and reframing questions and the judicious use of the bully pulpit is the key to presidential power. He argues that Obama could be a great president if he reaches for the keys in pocket. I doubt it on the evidence so far. (I have to be wrong sometime.)